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You are here: Home / Composting / Compostable diapers

Compostable diapers

December 16, 2007 by Andrea Bellamy 18 Comments

us_goodwill_home.jpggDiapers: cute – and good for the earth.

In just four months, I’ll be contending with mountains of stinky diapers. It seems to be the one given in a postpartum world. I mean, there’s a chance the Lentil might take after his or her momma and sleep through the night from three weeks old (please, Holy Mary, please). Or there could be colic and irritability and general chaos (more likely). When it comes down to it, poop, it seems, is the one constant.

Until recently, I hadn’t given a whole lot of brain space to the diaper dilemma. I knew that I didn’t want to use traditional disposables for obvious reasons, but, while cloth diapers have come a long way since my butt was wrapped in them, the laundry requirements seem like they could be a little overwhelming – especially during those sleepless first months. So I thought I would go with a biodegradable disposable.

Then I read about gDiapers on Mighty Girl. gDiapers consist of a washable, cotton outer pant with an absorbent, plastic-free
flushable insert. You flush the poopy inserts but, if you wish, you can compost the wet ones. How cool is that? Hey, as the site notes, baby’s urine is a great source of nitrogen! I wonder, though, do diapers count as a “brown” (dry leaves, etc.) or a “green” (kitchen scraps, etc.)?

It’ll be a while before I can report back to you, but if anyone’s used these, or had success with other environmentally-friendly diapers, please let me know.

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Filed Under: Composting Tagged With: biodegradable diapers, Composting, diapers, gardening, gdiaper

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Carolyn says

    December 17, 2007 at 5:15 am

    Hi Andrea – found your blog via Annie & Colleen’s young garden bloggers conversation. I’ve been cloth diapering (my son just turned 2). G-diapers are a great concept, but wicked expensive. We’re lucky enough to have a diaper service, so my workload is reduced to laundering of covers (more covers=less frequent washing). As far as sustainability, I think that having my clean diapers washed and transported “in bulk” with many of my neighbors’ is about the best I can do, vs. manufacturing & disposing of other diapering products.

    PS – In the first 6 weeks, I think everything but loving yourself and your new little one is negotiable!

  2. Andrea Bellamy says

    December 17, 2007 at 10:43 am

    Hi Carolyn. Thanks for your input. I hadn’t thought of a diaper service. You’re right – gdiapers are expensive when you think of them over a two- or three-year period. I guess this little one may bankrupt me yet!

  3. jennifer says

    December 19, 2007 at 11:13 am

    There is nothing overwhelming about cloth diapers. They go in a dry bin and then go in the wash when the bin is full. Voila done. Trust me, I’m the laziest person alive and they are ridiculously easy.

    Besides isn’t it illegal to dispose of human waste products in anything but the sewer system?

  4. Andrea Bellamy says

    December 19, 2007 at 12:12 pm

    Hi Jennifer,

    I guess I’ll have to try out all my options. Maybe I shouldn’t write off cloth so fast…

    As for disposal of human waste – the poopy diapers get flushed – only the “wet” ones can go in the compost. I don’t know if that would be illegal. Hell, there are people who purposely pee on their compost piles to increase the nitrogen content and accelerate the composting process. (I’m not making this up! Google “urine compost.”)

  5. Ottawa Gardener says

    January 19, 2008 at 1:45 pm

    In light of what I didn’t realize (that you were expecting), I am posting with my other blog – the greatly neglected one, by commenters, anyhow. Congrats!

    We did EC for a while but I don’t always have the committment for it. EC? Elimination Communication, you know, peeing your baby, that sort of weird hippy thing.

    I love the idea of compostable diaper.

  6. Andrea Bellamy says

    January 20, 2008 at 10:25 pm

    Ottawa Gardener – Well, what do you know! You have a parenting/homeschooling blog! I had no idea. You are a wealth of information! Yes, the compostable diaper does sound appealing, no? I’ll let you know how it works out.

  7. genelle says

    January 29, 2008 at 9:16 pm

    I tried cloth with the covers but couldn’t do it for the first while, after you get the hang of being a mom then you can take care of the cloth diapers, it works if you are an organized person.. I know you can totally do it girl! and then have the compostable ones for travelling and out of the house stuff.. and don’t worry you can still garden..for crying outloud Aaron came to work with me the first six months of his life..hence the pacifer obsession..but that is another story.
    in the end, use the cloth ones with the washable covers..if I find the website I will send it to you my mother in law bought us some awesome ones..

  8. Andrea Bellamy says

    January 30, 2008 at 9:27 am

    Thanks Genelle. I think I’m going to buy some of each: gDiapers, cloth diapers, biodegradable disposables… then figure out which works for me. Thanks for the encouragement!

  9. kimberley says

    January 31, 2008 at 11:34 am

    I’ve got 2 little girls, both in diapers and have been using gdiapers for both. I like them, especially the flushable/compostable part. Unfortunately I live in a condo at the moment at can’t compost, but will be moving to a house to accommodate these 2 growing girls and then will compost away! Gdiapers are easy, but they are expensive. We just chose to swallow the cost and cut back elsewhere. Two notes if you do chose them – practice putting them together before little one comes since that seems finicky at first and is easier if you’ve done it a bit. Also, they’re not as easy when traveling because you have to “swish” the insides in the toilet to break them up so as not to clog anyone’s toilet and we always forget the stick.
    Best wishes to you.

  10. Andrea Bellamy says

    January 31, 2008 at 12:10 pm

    Kimberley – thanks for the great tips! Yes, I also wondered how gDiapers would hold up outside the house (ie: without a stir stick!). We’ll definitely give them a try for at-home, though.

  11. Sandy says

    February 8, 2008 at 8:12 am

    Has anyone tried composting Nature Babycare diapers (just the wet ones)? I have read that the backsheet and distribution layer are both 100% compostable. We are just getting into composting and was wondering if anyone has any experience with this?

  12. Plain Jane says

    February 17, 2008 at 1:56 pm

    I was told to use disposables for the first few weeks of our baby’s life. It was worth it to say the least. We used Seventh Generation until I felt ready to take on the cloth diapers. Check out 1-800-Diapers for good prices http://www.diapers.com/
    From there we had a mix of prefold diapers with Isme Visme wraps, Fuzzi Bunz and gDiapers. I liked the gDiapers but found the cloth just as easy and all I had to do was wash them. Now my son is 20 months and we use Fuzzi Bunz only. If nothing else gDiapers is a great company that is located here in Portland Or. The couple that owns it live and work out of gDiaper headquarters. They employ mamas and provide three in house babysitters. Very cool place to check out. Good luck and enjoy your little one!

  13. Andrea Bellamy says

    February 19, 2008 at 8:57 am

    Hi Plain Jane – thanks for the great tips! I’ll have to check all those names out. I can’t believe the options for cloth diapers these days. I feel very luck – if not overwhelmed – to have such selection!

  14. Erica says

    February 20, 2008 at 4:09 pm

    Hi, I just wanted to second the comment about Fuzzi Bunz. They are really great cloth diapers and super easy to wash up. They’re cut really well to fit the child and they come in such great colors. :) Congratulations on your impending arrival!

  15. Andrea Bellamy says

    February 21, 2008 at 5:40 pm

    Hi Erica. Great to hear. I will definitely go check them out!

  16. Tania says

    February 26, 2008 at 2:24 pm

    I hadn’t seen a response to Sandy’s question about whether Nature Baby diapers can be composted.
    I spoke with someone at Tushies, who said if you remove the sticky tabs and the plastic piece the tabs attach to, the rest is biodegrable.
    But, I can’t seem to find contact info for the folks at Nature Baby. They do indicate which portions of their diapers are biodegradable, but I don’t know what the backsheet and distribution layer actually means?!!
    Any input on this from others, or has Andrew figured it out?
    thanks!

  17. Jess says

    June 19, 2010 at 6:41 pm

    Broody Chick fully compostable baby wipes and diapers are now available in Vancouver at the Greens on Broadway grocery store. Check out their website for more retailers. They are a nicely made ‘disposable’ diaper (a la Seventh Generation) but they are made from compostable materials. We use cloth (diaper service) mostly, but for nighttime and travel we have been using Seventh Generation disposables—no more! The nice thing about Broody Chick is there is NO FUSS. I found gDiapers fussy and prone to spillage. Plus, the Broody CHick line is from Victoria BC. Very nice.

  18. Louise says

    September 24, 2010 at 3:14 pm

    Hi there. Sorry for the late post. I had visited this thread a while back and wanted to come back and comment after having more experience with gDiapers. I’ve been using them almost exclusively for four months now. We haven’t had a single blow-out. After talking to others who use them, I believe the common mistake is not letting the inner liner fall into the fold between the baby’s legs and bottom. There’s an instructional video at the gDiapers website.

    I haven’t found them to be expensive at all. I know gDiaper recommends a big starter package; but that is not necessary at all. I only wash my covers once a week. They never get dirty. I have survived just fine with only three gDiapers over the past four months. The inner linings usually need a wash after a #2 diaper, but not the covers. Additionally, you can save money buying the covers used on Ebay or through one of those diaper exchange sites. If the name of the game is being eco-friendly, than re-using and recycling is key, no?

    I really believe this is an ideal product. As a gardener, I am loving the amount and quality of compost we are generating by using these. As a former Californian, I could not bring myself to cloth diaper. 36 States in the US are expected to be in a full-on water crisis over the next thirty years (sooner for many of them). As parents, its really time we re-think our practices for the sake of our children. Thank you gDiaper and the other companies that are finally creating other options for us.

    p.s. Even city dwellers and apartment renters can compost. There are a few countertop compost bins on the market. We live in a city, but are lucky to have a decent sized city lot for composting and gardening.

    Good luck to everyone and congratulations on becoming parents.

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